Blood Diamonds
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: It is in human nature to look beyond the frontier, to take that next big step. It is also in human nature to pursue wealth, even at great risk. So when such wealth lies beyond Earth, in the depths of Jupiter, many are willing to risk their lives to take it. And, in some cases, lose them.


**Blood Diamonds**

"They say the skies are full of diamonds."

"Actually it's mostly full of hydrogen. But I guess that doesn't have the same ring to it."

Sahad Cutter smirked. Daniel Hanson remained impassive. He'd seen death before. Dealt it also. The powers that were apparently valued this because they would be sending him at the head of an expeditionary force to Meridian in the next month. For now however, he was at Jupiter. Zeus Station. Watching alongside Sahad as they monitored the status of the diamond trawlers that operated in the depths of the planet's atmosphere.

"Makes you wonder why anyone would work here," Daniel commented.

"People go where the money is. And, well, high risk, high reward. That appeals to some people." Sahad gave his friend a playful nudge. "We both know that right."

The commander remained silent. He knew it. He didn't know if it still appealed to him. And glancing at his former co-commander, now retired to the Sol system's largest stellar body to supervise diamond harvesting, he didn't know if it appealed to Sahad anymore either.

"Sir, structural integrity is failing on trawler seven," came a technician's voice.

Daniel watched as Sahad moved over to one of the technicians. High risk, high reward, he reflected. Maybe to the people in the trawlers below, fishing diamonds that fell through Jupiter's atmosphere, converted to the substance from soot due to the incredible pressures the gas giant exerted. But as he noticed, Sahad and the people on the station didn't seem to share in any of the risk. Only the reward.

"Hull integrity down to twenty percent."

"Something wrong?" Daniel asked, walking over. Sahad shooed him away.

"Eighteen."

"Get them back up," he said. "Abort trawling."

"Yes sir. Roger that."

Daniel remained standing as the technician gave instructions to the trawler – an informal name for one of the many spherical ships designed to operate in the depths of Jupiter's atmosphere. Sahad turned back to him.

"It's just like normal command really," he said. "Send people off to die. Only-"

"Do they die?"

"Um-"

"Your men," Daniel said, pointing to the display on the screen by him, monitoring the trawler's ascent through the atmosphere, its failing hull, and the elevated lifesigns of its crew. "Do they die?"

"Well…yeah," Sahad said, his tone uneasy. "We're operating in one of the most hostile environments known to Man. Of course accidents happen."

"Thirteen percent."

"And will one happen now?"

"Eleven percent."

"Shit!"

Daniel watched as Sahad moved back to the screen. He wondered why he was here. Why he wasn't studying maps of Meridian. Why he had visited Zeus Station and ended up beholding a situation where he had no control over events, and no enemy to fight."

"Eight percent."

Sahad swore again. Daniel closed his eyes. Diamonds, he reflected. Commodities for a resource-hungry Earth that had long extracted anything of value from its crust.

"Seven percent."

Diamonds were valuable even centuries ago. They'd even sparked conflict. Blood diamonds, he recalled.

"Five."

And, he reflected, blood was about to be spilt again.

"Three."

"No…"

"Zero. Ship destroyed."

Daniel watched the vitals flatline and the trawler disappear off the display. There wouldn't be any blood, he reflected. The people's blood would be too compacted along with their crushed bodies to seep out into the planet's atmosphere.

_I should go._

He watched Sahad slam his palms down on the terminal, sending pens and paperweights flying. He watched the look in the man's eyes – regret. Despair. Guilt. Sahad had changed, but he still remained human.

_And so were the people on that trawler._

Humans always went into the unknown. Some humans were willing to risk anything and everything to achieve their prize.

Daniel turned to leave. He ignored Sahad's calls.

And sometimes, that meant the spilling of blood. Sometimes, in war.

And sometimes, for blood diamonds.

* * *

_A/N_

_Idea for this when I was reading a scientific article that stated that there's a theory that it might actually rain diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn, that carbon is converted to diamond as it sinks through the atmosphere due to the high pressures involved. My first thought was "wow, that's interesting." The second was "so, how long does it take human space travel to reach the stage of developing technology capable of harvesting them?" Third was to make a oneshot based on it._


End file.
